This story is a collaboration between The Narwhal and the Toronto Star.

Ontario developers have spent nearly $173 million scooping up hundreds of acres in the former Greenbelt this summer, months after the Ford government reneged on its promise to protect the environmentally sensitive land.

All 524 acres, purchased in the span of five days in early June, lie within the ecologically important Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve in Pickering, east of Toronto. The preserve, once known as the “crown jewel” of the Greenbelt, consists of prime farmland and sensitive waterways adjacent to Rouge National Urban Park. 

Prominent developer Silvio De Gasperis of TACC group is among those who made the recent acquisitions. A company spokesperson said they plan to develop the land “to assist the province with its goal to improve housing supply and affordability.”

Since the early 2000s, De Gasperis has fought the province to develop over a thousand acres of land his companies already owned within the Duffins Rouge preserve, which was supposed to remain untouched in perpetuity. Since the Ontario government removed the preserve from the Greenbelt, it has also dismantled other laws protecting the area.

Of the eight recent sales, six were bought by White Cherry Developments. The company’s principals include De Gasperis and other prominent Greater Toronto Area developers: Gord Buck, founder of Argo Development, and Jack Eisenberger, president of Fieldgate Developments. White Cherry’s purchases span 400 acres, or about 162 hectares. 

Companies associated with TACC also made two more acquisitions a few days later. One 90-acre property was already partially owned by TACC, but the company acquired the other co-owner’s interest in it for just over $15 million. The other piece of land was five acres directly next to the 90-acre property, purchased for just under $2.5 million.

The recent flurry of land sales in the preserve indicates the province’s decision to remove protections from it has sparked something like a gold rush for developers.

Phil Pothen, the Ontario environment program manager at the charity Environmental Defence, said the loss of the preserve would not just destroy habitat within its boundaries, but also harm the land around it — like Rouge National Urban Park.

“Anyone who purchases [Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve] land now knows that it has been purchased under a cloud, that the circumstances of removal of land from the Greenbelt are highly questionable,” Pothen said.    

The Ontario government removed the 4,000-acre Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve east of Toronto from the Greenbelt last year. Together with Rouge National Urban Park, the preserve forms the last intact wildlife corridor between Lake Ontario and the Oak Ridges Moraine. Photos: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

Value of former Greenbelt has skyrocketed since Ontario removed protections

Last fall, the Ontario government opened up 7,400 acres of protected Greenbelt land for development in a move Premier Doug Ford said would allow the construction of 50,000 homes. In exchange, the province added 9,400 acres elsewhere to the two-million-acre Greenbelt, though that land was already protected under other mechanisms.

Both Ontario’s auditor general and integrity commissioner are investigating the government’s decision to change the Greenbelt’s boundaries.

The federal government has come out strongly in favour of protecting the national park and the agricultural preserve land next to it, saying it would even consider using extraordinary powers to block or delay development. A review by the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada of the impacts of development on lands adjacent to the national park is currently underway. 

De Gasperis in particular has been an outspoken opponent of the Greenbelt since before its creation, and his company unsuccessfully sued the Ontario government in the 2000s in an attempt to keep his land out of the protected area. 

In a statement, Alana De Gasperis of TACC Developments — Silvio’s daughter — said on behalf of the White Cherry consortium that the recent acquisition in the preserve was part of a planned development project called Cherrywood, a name taken from an existing hamlet in the area. The first phase of Cherrywood is set to include 1,200 homes, with developers proposing to eventually build 30,000. 

Ontario’s auditor general and integrity commissioner are both investigating the province’s decision to open 7,400 acres of Greenbelt land for housing construction. Premier Doug Ford has denied any wrongdoing. Photo: Carlos Osorio / The Narwhal

Last year, a Narwhal/Toronto Star investigation into the developers benefitting from Ontario’s Greenbelt decision found 24 properties in the preserve owned by companies listing Silvio De Gasperis as a director. Purchased mostly in 2003 — with one lot added in 2004 and two in 2016 — for a combined $8.6 million, the lands add up to more than 1,300 acres. The investigation also showed De Gasperis family, their companies and senior staff have donated at least $294,000 to the Ontario Progressive Conservative party since 2014. (They also donated just over $19,000 to other parties in the same period of time.)

The recent purchases also show just how much value of the land, once prohibited from development, has increased since it was removed from the Greenbelt. 

A company affiliated with TACC, 14th Avenue Farms, purchased 106 acres in the agricultural preserve in 2020 for $7.9 million, about $85,000 per acre when adjusting for inflation. In a recent transaction, with the Greenbelt designation and other environmental protections removed, White Cherry Developments bought 82 acres for $29.5 million. That’s about $357,199 per acre, more than four times higher than the 2020 purchase price.

Alana De Gasperis did not directly answer when asked how much TACC has seen the value of its lands in the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve increase. She also did not answer whether TACC knew the land would eventually be developable when the 2020 purchase was made.

Developers are proposing to build a first phase of 1,200 homes on the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve. The final plan, they say, is to build 30,000. Photos: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

“It is impossible to know what the value of these lands will be today given that this development requires tremendous investment, commitment, study and work,” Alana De Gasperis said in the statement. 

Most of the lands were put up for private sale in January, with a brochure advertising their value given their removal from the Greenbelt.

“This offering represents an outstanding opportunity to introduce meaningful housing stock at scale to a supply constrained market,” the brochure said.

Victor Doyle, a former provincial planner credited as an architect of the Greenbelt, said developers’ willingness to pay higher prices now to acquire more land in the area reflects how certain they must be that there’ll be a significant windfall.

“It just completely reaffirms it’s open season on anywhere in the Greenbelt for speculation, development interests,” Doyle said. 

Before the Ontario government removed it from the Greenbelt, the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve had been protected for nearly 20 years. The area would need serious water and sewage upgrades to host large-scale housing construction. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

Developers in confidential talks about next steps for Duffins Rouge lands 

The Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve was the largest area removed from the Greenbelt last year.

The area was, at one point, expropriated by the provincial government. In 1999, the province worked with the City of Pickering to sell it back to the original landowners and tenant farmers, who agreed to agricultural easements set by Pickering to leave it as green space in perpetuity. But in 2005, with the land about to be included in the province’s new Greenbelt, Pickering suddenly revoked the easements. Developers — including Silvio De Gasperis — snapped up land at bargain-basement prices.

“Everybody is always looking for a deal,” De Gasperis told the Star in 2005 after he bought the land.

The province stepped in, again, adding the land to the Greenbelt and restoring the easements. De Gasperis’ company sued the government in response, a pursuit that cost him millions of dollars. The court ruled in 2007 that De Gasperis’ company and another company that brought the application acted in bad faith.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice found the application by the companies was a “further step in their ongoing war with the province” in an attempt to harass and intimidate the province into permitting development on their lands. 

Ontario Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark, who oversees the Greenbelt, has said the province had to open sections of the protected area to tackle the housing crisis. A provincial panel, however, found Ontario has more than enough land and the Greenbelt isn’t causing housing shortages. Photo: Carlos Osorio / The Narwhal

Now, nearly 20 years later, Silvio De Gasperis is poised to begin building. That work will have to happen in short order: the Ontario government set a deadline of 2025 for developers to get shovels in the ground on former Greenbelt land. If they don’t meet it, the lands will be returned to the protected area, the province has said.

Victoria Podbielski, spokesperson for the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Steve Clark, said in a statement that the City of Pickering has “repeatedly indicated” the agricultural preserve lands are “well-suited” for housing development and should be removed from the Greenbelt. Pickering’s current city council, however, voted in December to condemn the province’s move.

Podbielski also said the government’s expectation is that at least 10 per cent of the homes built there be “affordable” — a condition that was not included when the government removed protections from the preserve.

Developers have been in confidential talks about next steps since January with Durham Region, a municipality that includes the agricultural preserve, and a provincial government development facilitator who helps resolve disputes over land use. 

Durham has argued against building on the preserve, saying it would be difficult and expensive to deliver municipal services like sewage, water and electricity, which the area mostly lacks right now. Large-scale development would require “major upgrades to the regional water and sewer systems which will take years to plan and complete,” the region’s planning staff said earlier this year. 

Developers and governments have been sparring over the fate of the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve for decades. Now, the Ontario government has set a deadline of 2025 for builders to start housing construction. Photos: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

Alana De Gasperis said in her statement that developers would be responsible for the cost of any new infrastructure. She also said they’re working with environmental engineers and other experts to protect and in some cases enhance natural features on the landscape.

“There will be additional financial commitments for community benefits such as affordable housing, parks, trails, healthcare lands and urban agriculture, all of which are costs to the developers,” she said. 

“The result will be a complete, resilient, healthy community to provide much needed housing and support the coexistence and wellbeing of people, the environment and nature.”

Bonnie Littley, co-founder of the Rouge Duffins Greenspace Coalition, who campaigned in the early 2000s to protect the Pickering land, says she fears the selling of land in the preserve will continue, even though there are no plans for how that will translate into more housing.  

“The worst part of it is that there is no infrastructure planned for this area, because it was supposed to be protected,” she said.

“What happens now? Do we cut off development elsewhere to put all our resources here?” she said. “It’s just ludicrous from a planning perspective.” 

—With research assistance from Jesse McLean, Rick Sznajder and Astrid Lange 

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

This story is a collaboration between The Narwhal and the Toronto Star.

As recently as November, the Ontario government pitched the Bradford Bypass as a four-lane highway. 

But over the last year, Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation has quietly been considering expanding the project to eight lanes by the year 2041, according to freedom of information documents provided to The Narwhal and The Toronto Star by the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition.

“It doubles everything,” said the executive director of the coalition, Margaret Prophet. 

“It doubles the amount of land taken out, it doubles the amount of impact to source water … [it] has just gotten that much bigger in a really sensitive area, and people don’t really know.”

The Bradford Bypass, if built, would run a 16.2-kilometre route through York Region and Simcoe County, connecting Hwys. 400 and 404. It would pass through farmland, cross the Holland River, which drains into Lake Simcoe, and cut into a section of Ontario’s Greenbelt called the Holland Marsh. 

The province has said the highway is needed to clear up the clogged county roads that currently connect Highway 400 with Highway 404, especially with York Region and Simcoe County expecting an explosion of population growth in coming decades.

The highway, which the province is planning to open for public use as soon as 2031, won’t put congestion issues in the region to rest, according to the government’s own estimates.

Parts of the highway would be jammed the very first year it opens, according to the internal document provided to The Narwhal and The Toronto Star.

Publicly, the province has pitched the Bradford Bypass as a four-lane highway. It was listed as such in the government’s 2022 budget, which served as the Progressive Conservatives’ de facto election platform. The province also described the highway the same way to the federal government, which in Feb. 2022 rejected for the second time a request to review the environmental implications of the Bradford Bypass. 

The Ontario government has also described it as four lanes in press releases, as recently as Nov. 9. 

The Bradford Bypass will cross 30 waterways, including the Holland River. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

The highway has become a signature project for Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, whose riding it would run through. Photo: Caroline Mulroney / Twitter

But in recent months, the province’s plans for the highway appear to be in flux — and expanding. The highway would initially open with four lanes, two in each direction, said a ministry report posted on the project’s website in October. But its “ultimate” design “includes one high-occupancy vehicle lane and three general purpose travel lanes in each direction,” the report said, noting that a two-stage build would “allow deferral of a significant proportion of the overall project cost.”

A slideshow prepared for a Nov. 24 public consultation session for locals was even more definitive: “In its ultimate configuration (2041), the Bradford Bypass will feature six general purpose lanes and two HOV lanes (three lanes and one HOV lane in each direction).”

The province has been contemplating doubling the size of the highway since at least Oct. 2021. An internal report, prepared that month by consultants for the government as it explored the possibility of tolling the bypass, refers repeatedly to an “assumed widening to eight lanes” by 2041. 

Dakota Brasier, a spokesperson for Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney, said in an email that the project is still expected to be a “four lane highway.” 

The proposed routes of the Bradford Bypass and its sister project, Highway 413. Map: Jeannie Phan / The Narwhal

“When we look to expand or build any new infrastructure, we do an analysis on the current and future traffic flow, which includes forecasts for decades ahead,” Brasier said. “To support future growth, there is a potential the Bradford Bypass could need to be expanded, however that is not currently the plan.”

She did not answer questions about how many lanes the province’s environmental assessment is accounting for.

Prophet said it’s possible that the federal government might have come to a different conclusion about the Bradford Bypass in early 2022 had it known all the information.

“I think if they knew that this was going to be an eight lane highway, that would be a substantive change,” Prophet said. 

The Ontario government has said the Bradford Bypass is needed to unclog congested roads in York Region and Simcoe County. Both are expecting an explosion of population growth in coming decades. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

The Impact Assessment Agency of Canada — which prepared an analysis of the Bradford Bypass to help federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault make a decision about the project — said it did not know the highway could be eight lanes. But it did know the number of lanes could change in response to traffic forecasts, and the overall amount of land set aside for the project has not changed, the agency said.

Guilbeault’s office did not answer when asked whether knowing the specifics of the expansion plan would have changed his decision.

Mulroney has previously said the Bradford Bypass will cost $800 million to build, but it’s unclear whether that estimate is for a four- or eight-lane highway. Brasier didn’t answer when asked how many lanes are included in that figure. In a report published this month on highway planning, Ontario’s Auditor General estimated the Bradford Bypass would actually cost between $2 billion and $4 billion. 

“As we bring this project to market, we want to ensure we can retain the best value possible for taxpayers,” Brasier said in an email. “To preserve the competitive procurement process, we are unable to provide details on cost estimates.”

The government hasn’t finalized its plans for the highway design yet, but in early November began construction on a new bridge to route an existing road over the future bypass.

The Holland Marsh is known for the high-quality produce grown there, including carrots. The idea of an east-west highway through the area is decades old. Photos: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

The Bradford Bypass will be congested when it opens, document shows 

The Bradford Bypass would send more than 30,000 vehicles per day through what was once among the largest wetlands in southern Ontario. Settlers drained much of the original Holland Marsh area in the 1920s for agriculture. Nicknamed Ontario’s vegetable patch, the area is known for its fertile soil. The Bradford Bypass would cut through some of the remaining wetlands in the marsh, lands considered by the province to be environmentally significant.

The idea of a highway there is decades old, and the project last received an environmental assessment in 1997, before the existence of provincial policies protecting the Greenbelt. That review, based on plans for a four-lane highway, found that the project could cause impacts from air pollution, and that road salt runoff could contaminate groundwater and the Lake Simcoe watershed. It also included concerns from Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation, based on Lake Simcoe, which had concerns about archaeological sites along the route.

The Ontario government shelved the Bradford Bypass in the 2000s, but former Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne put it back in the province’s long-range plans in 2017. Still, it didn’t move forward until two years later, when Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives picked it back up, later fast-tracking an updated environmental assessment. 

Locals have long supported the proposal, too.

The Holland River drains into Lake Simcoe. Road salt runoff from the Bradford Bypass could contaminate the watershed, according to a 1997 environmental assessment of the project. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

“It’s not really a surprise to us,” said Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor James Leduc. “I don’t foresee it becoming eight lanes right away, but when any government plans a provincial highway, you would hope they would plan for expansion for the future.”

Leduc says he feels comfortable with the environmental assessment being done for the project, and says the project is a “necessity for our community.”

But a government tolling report predicts the highway will be congested the year it opens. Speeds on the eastbound bypass during the morning rush hour could slow to an average of 37 kilometres per hour on one section, estimates the report, a copy of which was obtained by the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition and given to The Narwhal and The Star. 

Congestion would hamper two-thirds of trips eastbound towards Toronto on the highway in 2031, the report shows. It also concludes that doubling the size of the highway in 2041 would fix that issue — though it doesn’t mention the concept of induced demand, a long-observed phenomenon where adding lanes to existing roads attracts more drivers and fails to relieve clogged traffic in the long run. 

The Holland Marsh, located along the Holland River, was once one of the largest wetlands in Southern Ontario. Settlers drained much of it in the 1920s for agriculture. Photos: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

Brasier didn’t answer when asked whether the report accounted for induced demand, though she said the government does not have plans to toll the highway. (The government previously walked back plans to toll the bypass after a Toronto Star/National Observer investigation showed it had been building a business case to do so.)

“It’s going to be congested just like Highway 401 gets congested, and it’s one of the widest highways in North America,” Prophet said. “This is just one insane absurdity after another.”

In an email, Brasier argued the opposite: that the clogged Highway 401 is proof of the need for more roads. “Gridlock is not just going to disappear, and neither is commercial traffic,” she said.

The endangered Jefferson salamander may be living along the route of the Bradford Bypass, documents obtained by The Narwhal and The Star show. Photo: Mike Wilhelm / Shutterstock

Several species at risk could be impacted by the Bradford Bypass

The Ontario government has been told the habitats of several species at risk may be along the route of the bypass, according to internal notes and a slideshow obtained by The Narwhal and The Star through access to information. The documents were prepared for a March 2022 meeting between the Ministry of Transportation, consultants and several other provincial and federal government departments.

One of the species that may be living along the highway route is the endangered Jefferson salamander: in 2019, the Ford government committed to protecting the salamander by curtailing the loss of its southern Ontario habitat, which has been largely lost to urban development. The document also notes the possible presence of other types of species at risk, including bats, meadow birds and turtles. 

The highway will also cross waterways 30 times, according to the slideshow.

The Holland Marsh is a specialty crop area in the Greenbelt, nicknamed Ontario’s vegetable patch. The Bradford Bypass would run through it to connect Highways 400 and 404. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

Bill Foster stands on the eastern bank of the Holland River. Foster says he worries about how noise and pollution from the Bradford Bypass could harm species at risk. Photo: Steve Somerville / Metroland

Bill Foster, who lives directly next to the proposed path of the Bradford Bypass in East Gwillimbury and has fought against the highway as the founder of Forbid Roads Over Green Spaces (FROGS), said he worries about how the noise and pollution will affect the species at risk nearby.

“Ever since the Ford government has come into place, they have done everything they need to totally ignore the environment, to do whatever they want to do.”

In an email, Brasier said the government is building the bypass in accordance with Ontario’s “strict environmental laws,” and is conducting a set of environmental studies aimed at ensuring current standards are being met. 

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

This story is a collaboration between The Narwhal and the Toronto Star.

In September, a company run by a prominent Ontario developer paid $80 million for two parcels of land that could not be developed. Totalling nearly 700 acres, they sit entirely within Ontario’s protected Greenbelt. 

Weeks later, that investment by Michael Rice is set to pay off. The seemingly untouchable swath of fields and trees in King Township, just north of Toronto, is now on the Ontario government’s list of lands it wants to remove from the Greenbelt. If the change goes through, the properties Rice purchased in September could be ripe for development, and worth far more than $80 million. 

Of the 15 areas slated to be removed from the Greenbelt, eight include properties purchased in the four years since the election of Doug Ford, who in 2018 was recorded telling a private audience he would “open a big chunk” of the protected area should he become premier, a Narwhal/Toronto Star investigation has found.

Other properties impacted by the Ontario government announcement have been held for years or decades.

Developers owning Greenbelt land now set to be developed appear to have given significant sums to Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party, donation records show. Lobbying records reveal connections between the party and five of the landowners who will benefit most from the proposed changes.

The timing is raising questions about whether the landowners knew the lands would soon become developable and profitable — or if they simply took a gamble and won.

“Nobody would pay this amount of money for land if they didn’t think it was going to be open for development,” said Phil Pothen of the non-profit Environmental Defence.

Rice is chief executive officer of Rice Group: neither he nor the company responded to questions for this story. King Township’s municipal council is asking the province to limit housing on the lands and fast-track a hospital project there instead.

The Narwhal/Star analysis of property records and corporate documents shows at least six developers bought parcels of land since 2018 that include portions of Greenbelt now set to be removed from the protected area.

Farmlands in the Greenbelt near King Township. A company run by Ontario developer Michael Rice bought sections of undevelopable Greenbelt in King in September. They’re now slated to be opened for development. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

TACC Developments, headed by prominent developer Silvio De Gasperis, paid $50 million in May 2021 for 100 acres of farmland north of Canada’s Wonderland in Vaughan. Large portions of the property are in the Greenbelt and were undevelopable at the time the land was purchased. If Ford’s proposal goes through, a lucrative chunk alongside Pine Valley Rd. will be cleared for houses.   

An executive assistant at the company said De Gasperis was out of the country for a family wedding and unable to respond to questions for this story. 

Collectively, the developers who purchased land within the Greenbelt since Ford was elected spent more than $278 million, according to land registry documents. 

With Ford’s decision to open them for development, the land values could skyrocket. The government, which is mandated to consult the public about the changes for 30 days, could finalize them as soon as early December.

“Wealthy developers stand to gain huge amounts of money when farmland is rezoned for development,” said Jessica Bell, the NDP housing critic. “They buy the land cheap, and they can sell it or develop it for incredible profit.”

The Narwhal/Star reached out to every developer named in this story. Most did not respond.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford, centre, and Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark at an event on Oct. 25, 2022. Photo: Doug Ford / Twitter

After detailed questions were sent to several developers, a spokesperson for the Ontario Home Builders’ Association and Building Industry and Land Development Association emailed an unsolicited statement. They said the statement was not from any developer in particular.

“We are in the midst of a housing crisis in the [Greater Toronto Area],” the statement reads. “When the Greenbelt was created, its boundaries encompassed not just environmentally sensitive lands but also farmland and land that had previously been designated for growth for housing and employment spaces.

“Sensationalizing this matter by focusing on anything other than the outcome, the building of more homes to meet increasing demand due to population growth, will be a disservice to readers and residents.”

Victor Doyle, a former provincial planner often credited as an architect of the Greenbelt, said in an interview that he worries the land swap sets a precedent for other developers to push to have their lands removed as well.

“Where did the government actually get the list of proposed properties that they want to remove?” Doyle said. “It raises all sorts of suspicions about connections between the government and the landowners in question.”

Farmworkers harvest carrots in the Greenbelt, which encompasses prime farmland and forests. Photos: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

The office of Steve Clark, Ontario’s minister of municipal affairs and housing, did not directly answer questions for this story, including how the parcels to be removed were selected and whether property owners had advance knowledge of their proposal.

In a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Clark told reporters it’s part of his job as housing minister to meet and work with developers of all kinds.

“It doesn’t matter who you are,” he said. “If you’re looking at assisting the Government of Ontario in building 1.5 million homes, we want to work with you.”

A spokesperson for Clark said in a statement the land is needed to ensure Ontario has enough homes to accommodate existing residents and the federal government’s immigration targets.

“The 15 sites identified had to meet very clear criteria that meant homes could be built quickly,” Victoria Podbielski said in an email.

Earlier this year, Ontario’s government-appointed Housing Affordability Task Force said a shortage of land isn’t the cause of the province’s housing crisis. “Land is available, both inside the existing built-up areas and on undeveloped land outside greenbelts.”

Ford says Ontario’s housing crisis justifies his flip-flop on developing the Greenbelt

The Greenbelt is an 800,000-hectare swath of farmland, forests and wetlands that stretches from Niagara to Port Hope. It was created in 2005 by Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government to preserve farmland, protect environmentally sensitive areas and rein in sprawl in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.  

There were some towns and homes in the Greenbelt area already. But generally, the legislation has meant new development there is prohibited. 

In 2018, before becoming premier, Ford was recorded at an event pitching development in the Greenbelt, an idea he credited to “some of the biggest developers in this country.” He quickly reversed course amid public backlash, promising repeatedly ever since that he’d never touch it. Until now. 

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative party and many of Premier Ford’s MPPs have long standing relationships with lobbyists who have advocated for companies whose land values could skyrocket if Greenbelt protections are removed. That said, lobbying records for those pictured do not specifically mention the Greenbelt among the topics discussed with government officials. Van Loan told the Star his lobbying was not related to the Greenbelt. Vokes’ former employer, StrategyCorp, said the same: she was an active lobbyist between 2021 and 2022. Chang was active between 2018 and 2019. Graphic: Shawn Parkinson and Emma McIntosh / The Narwhal

Earlier this month, the Ford government announced plans to open the 15 areas of the Greenbelt spanning 7,400 acres, to build homes — quickly. The province has pledged to replace the land it’s removing from the Greenbelt by adding 9,400 acres elsewhere, noting a net gain of 2,000 protected acres. In emailed questions, The Narwhal/Star asked the government if it believed the replacement land had equal ecological value, and received no answer. Some of the areas to be added are also already protected under different mechanisms.

Ford has defended his government’s flip-flop on the Greenbelt, saying it was necessary to achieve the goal of building 1.5 million homes in the next decade. 

“We’re in an unprecedented time when it comes to housing,” Ford said.

The spokesperson for the developers’ associations noted that the government has imposed “strict timelines” for building on the lands slated to be removed from the Greenbelt. Developers must show significant progress on their plans by next year with construction started by 2025. Otherwise the land will be returned to the Greenbelt.

Some of the parcels Ontario wants to remove from the Greenbelt are adjacent to land that’s already been developed with highways and subdivisions. Others are greener, surrounded by creeks and brush and farmers’ fields. The province said it chose parcels on the edges of the Greenbelt. Environmentalists have argued that even pieces on the fringe are key for ensuring a supply of food grown in Ontario, and keeping wildlife habitats intact and connected. Land that isn’t paved over also absorbs water when it rains, which mitigates floods.

Ontario’s PC Party has received significant donations from developers that own Greenbelt land

The Narwhal/Star investigation analyzed political donations by the developers, their companies, their families and senior staff members. It appears that nine of the developers that stand to benefit most from Ford’s Greenbelt land swap have donated significant sums to the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, totalling more than $572,000 since 2014, the earliest year in Ontario’s political donations database.

Many also donated to other parties, but far less: just over $326,000 altogether, most of which went to the Ontario Liberals when that party was in government. 

While names match, The Narwhal/Star cannot independently verify they are the same people. Common names were excluded from the analysis. The Narwhal/Star sent the donations records to the developers and they either did not respond or did not dispute them. 

Rice’s companies, someone with his name, and people whose names match those of his senior staff, have donated $47,000 to the Progressive Conservatives since 2014. 

Farmland in the Greenbelt outside of Milton, Ont. Environmental advocates and other critics say they worry the province’s decision to cut into the Greenbelt will ultimately impact the long-term viability of the whole of the protected area. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

Another major donor is the De Gasperis family. Names that match those of family members, their companies and senior staff donated $294,000 to the Tories. The De Gasperis family holds some Greenbelt land that now stands to be developed through consortiums with senior executives from Greenpark Group — run by the Baldassarra family, whose members, companies and senior staff donated $94,000 to the Tories — and Fieldgate Developments, whose principals and their companies gave just over $72,000. 

Several of the developers are also connected to the Progressive Conservatives through former Tory officials and politicians now working as registered lobbyists. 

In the last four years, TACC has hired three lobbyists with ties to Ford’s party to speak to the government on its behalf on land use issues. One is former federal Conservative MP Peter Van Loan, who was once the president of Ontario’s PC Party. 

He sought, according to the province’s lobbying registry, to influence “​​policies to facilitate the development of the client’s lands” and “land use policy.” In an email, Van Loan said those aims did not include asking for the removal of land from the Greenbelt.

The Ford government argues that parcels of Greenbelt land should be opened up for development because they are next to areas that are already built up. Photos: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

TACC, in a consortium that included Greenpark Group, also hired Amir Remtulla — former chief of staff to the late Rob Ford, the premier’s brother — from 2019 to 2020 to lobby on its behalf on issues related to “environment,” “housing” and the redevelopment of an old power plant site.

A different consortium involving TACC and Greenpark Group hired lobbyist Celine Chang from 2018 to 2019 to speak to the government about “conservation,” “environment,” “housing” and a specific development in Mississauga. Soon after, Chang was in the premier’s office as a policy advisor, a position she held from late 2019 until earlier this year. Earlier in her career, she worked briefly at the Ontario PC Party, according to her LinkedIn.

Remtulla and Chang did not respond to questions from The Narwhal/Star. Their lobbying registrations did not mention the Greenbelt.

Flato Developments, which bought about 100 acres of Greenbelt land in 2017 — some of which is part of the land swap proposal — hired lobbyist Leith Coghlin “to advise the government with respect to Planning Act and Municipal Act implications on development projects in Ontario” from October 2021 until October 2022. Coghlin once worked for former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris. Reached by phone, he declined to comment.

Fieldgate Properties also hired lobbyist Kailey Vokes of StrategyCorp to lobby the government about “housing” and developing surplus government land between August 2021 and August 2022. Before becoming a lobbyist, Vokes held a variety of roles in the Ford government, according to her LinkedIn profile. Vokes, who now works at Infrastructure Ontario, redirected questions to StrategyCorp, which said, via a spokesperson, that their lobbying for Fieldgate “had no relation to the Greenbelt.”

The Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve in the Greenbelt east of Toronto. Developer Silvio De Gasperis fought the Ontario government in court over the preserve’s inclusion in the 2000s. Now, his land in the area is expected to be opened for development. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

Other Greenbelt landowners are asking for protections to be dropped on their properties

The province has expedited development for many of these same companies in the past. 

FLATO, TACC and Rice Group have all previously benefited from Minister’s Zoning Orders (MZO), a controversial tool which allows the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to fast-track housing projects by overruling municipalities. 

At least three of the parcels the province is now proposing to remove from the Greenbelt were near or part of projects that have received a zoning order in the past four years. 

Silvio De Gasperis, owner of the TACC Group of construction and development companies, is also among the biggest potential winners of the province’s proposed changes to the Greenbelt. Through his companies and partnerships, he has land in four different areas proposed to be removed from the Greenbelt. Some are owned through holding companies, while others are held by consortiums of developers including De Gasperis.

Some of the most notable parcels held by De Gasperis are within the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve, located east of Toronto in Pickering. The preserve protects prime farmland and sensitive waterways, abutting Rouge National Urban Park. If the province wants housing on the reserve, it will also have to repeal the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Act, which prohibits development in the area. As reported in The Star Wednesday, the government introduced a bill that would do so. 

Housing development outside of Milton, Ont., near the Greenbelt. The Ontario government’s proposed Greenbelt land swap could be finalized as soon as early December. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

The area was, at one point, expropriated for a proposed airport that was never built. In 1999, the province worked with the City of Pickering to sell it back to the original landowners and tenant farmers, who agreed to conditions set by Pickering to leave it as green space in perpetuity. But six years later, Pickering suddenly revoked those conditions and developers — including De Gasperis — snapped up land at bargain-basement prices. 

“Everybody is always looking for a deal,” De Gasperis told The Star in 2005 after he bought the land. 

The province stepped in, again, and added the land to the Greenbelt. De Gasperis sued the government in response, a pursuit that cost him millions of dollars. But it had remained intact until now. 

The Narwhal/Star analysis located 24 properties in the preserve owned by companies listing Silvio De Gasperis as a director. Purchased mostly in 2003 — with one lot added in 2004 and two in 2016 — for a combined $8.6 million, the lands add up to more than 1,300 acres. All are slated to be removed from the Greenbelt. 

“I never thought this would happen. We thought the preserve was cast in stone, because it has so many layers of protection,” said Bonnie Littley, one of the co-founders of the Rouge Duffins Greenspace Coalition.

During Question Period in Ontario’s Legislature on Thursday, after this article was published, NDP MPP Jennifer French referenced the Narwhal/Star reporting, specifically mentioning De Gasperis’s holdings in the Duffins Rouge preserve, asking Clark, “Does the Premier understand how shady this looks?”

Clark said the land being opened up “will provide a significant opportunity for housing,” and that the province is expanding the Greenbelt by adding 2,000 more acres than it’s taking out.  

The Holland Marsh section of the Greenbelt. Vaughan Councillor Marilyn Iafrate said she has received calls from developers who own land elsewhere in the Greenbelt looking for municipal support to open up their properties as well. Photos: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

The Greenbelt land swap also appears poised to benefit developers who made long-term bets. 

New Horizon Development Group purchased land in Grimsby, east of Hamilton, through an associated company in 2019, spending $10 million on a parcel of Greenbelt land next to Lake Ontario that was set aside for farming. The company’s president, Jeff Paikin, said in an interview it hasn’t been farmed in at least six decades and borders a developed area.

“At the end of the day, it never belonged in [the Greenbelt], and so we took a very big risk in 2019 when we bought it on the assumption that at some level in the next 10 years, common sense would rule,” said Paikin, the brother of Ontario broadcaster Steve Paikin. “And here we are, so it’s a good day.” 

The company had already been in touch with the Town of Grimsby about the property before the Greenbelt announcement, though Paikin said it hadn’t talked to the province. “There’s not really a mechanism to do so, other than to sort of call and beg,” he said. “And that’s just not our style. We go through proper channels.”

The company is now making its plans to start construction by Ontario’s 2025 deadline. 

Some of the parcels Ontario wants to remove from the Greenbelt are adjacent to land that’s already been developed with highways and subdivisions. Others are greener, surrounded by creeks and brush and farmers’ fields. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

The province’s proposal may also resolve some long-contentious sections of the Greenbelt. Minotar Holdings Inc., helmed by Clay and Corey Leibel, paid $7.5 million in 2003 for 210 acres in Markham, part of which was later added to the Greenbelt. The company subsequently sued the province, arguing its inclusion was a “mistake.” The province defended its decision in court, arguing that the land was “of significant environmental value” and its inclusion is “consistent with the policy rationale” for the Greenbelt, according to a summary of its statement of defence contained in related court documents. A trial is scheduled for next year. Now some of that land — the exact size isn’t specified in public documents — is slated to be pulled out. Neither Clay Leibel nor the company’s lawyers responded to questions for this story. 

The bigger concern now, environmental advocates and other critics say, is that the province’s decision to cut into the Greenbelt will ultimately impact the long-term viability of the whole of the protected area. 

Vaughan Councillor Marilyn Iafrate said she has received calls from developers who own land elsewhere in the Greenbelt looking for municipal support to open up their properties as well. 

“This is not the end of it. This is the start,” said Iafrate. “Every single landowner with Greenbelt land will start lobbying the government. And we will see more of this.”

—With research assistance from Rick Sznajder, Astrid Lange, Jesse McLean and Robert Benzie.Updated on Nov. 17, 2022, 12:50 p.m. ET: This story was updated to include comment from Minister Steve Clark.Updated on Nov. 17, 2022, 3:55 p.m. ET: This story was updated to include NDP MPP Jennifer French asking Clark at Queens Park about details in the Narwhal/Star reporting.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.

This story is a collaboration between the Toronto Star and The Narwhal.

The Ontario government’s own research has found 11 species whose survival is in danger living along the proposed route of Highway 413 — including two central to a federal environmental review that may delay the controversial project.

According to documents obtained by The Narwhal and the Toronto Star through an access-to-information request, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation has quietly confirmed the presence of the western chorus frog, the rapids clubtail and nine other species at risk along Highway 413’s proposed route running from Vaughan through Milton in southern Ontario.

The finding raises questions about how long the proposed 60-kilometre highway might be mired in the federal review, and if Ottawa might now be compelled to formally step in and take over the project altogether. 

Highway 413 is a key project for the Doug Ford government, but it has been stalled since the federal government decided last year to subject it to an extra layer of environmental oversight. At the time, Ottawa said it saw “clear areas of federal concern,” especially around how the highway could harm three species at risk that were protected federally but not provincially: the western chorus frog, the red-headed woodpecker and a rare dragonfly called a rapids clubtail.

A full federal intervention could delay the highway for years, as the project would be subject to a stricter level of scrutiny. 

In an email, the Impact Assessment Agency, the federal department responsible for conducting environmental assessments of certain projects, said it’s “not in a position to answer questions” about how Highway 413 could affect the environment, or whether the federal government will feel the need to take over.

Ontario’s Ministry of Transportation hasn’t yet observed red-headed woodpeckers along the proposed route of Highway 413. But the Impact Assessment Agency believes they are present, which was a key part of Ottawa’s decision to review the project. Photo: Shutterstock

Late last year, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault issued an emergency order that halted work indefinitely on a development near Montreal that threatened western chorus frog habitat. Photo: Stephanie Foden

But Keith Brooks, programs director at the non-profit Environmental Defence, said: “I think that the Impact Assessment Agency and [federal Environment Minister Steven] Guilbeault are going to be very hard pressed to say that a full federal impact assessment is not warranted at this point, given the information that we now know.”

Last November, Guilbeault issued an emergency order that halted work indefinitely on a residential development in Longueuil, a Montreal suburb, due to threats to the habitat of the western chorus frog in Quebec. 

Ontario’s list of 11 species at risk on Highway 413’s planned route is in an internal report from October 2021 prepared by engineering consulting firms WSP and AECOM, and obtained through an access to information request to the Impact Assessment Agency. This is just an early draft — Ontario must submit a final version of the report, called an initial project description, to move the federal impact assessment process into its next phase. 

“It is not unusual for a proponent to take several years to prepare an [initial project description] for a project,” said a spokesperson with the agency. 

The 300-page draft report includes an update on how the project is progressing, including species observed in the area and other mandatory requirements, like consultation with Indigenous communities. The province says work is ongoing on the report, and a submission date has not been set.

The 11 species at risk confirmed to be living along the route of Highway 413 include seven birds, a frog, a minnow, a dragonfly and a type of tree. Illustration: Shawn Parkinson / The Narwhal

The other species at risk Ontario has observed so far include an endangered minnow called a redside dace, seven types of birds and the butternut tree. The province hasn’t yet found the red-headed woodpecker, though historical records show it might be present, the report noted. Ontario recently added the bird to its endangered species list.

Environmental groups say the further loss of species at risk is worrisome. Each part of an ecosystem plays an important role in it, and losing any of them can have unexpected consequences for human economies and culture, said Anne Bell, the director of conservation and education at Ontario Nature.

For example, the red-headed woodpecker drills holes in trees that other animals and insects use to nest, helps dead wood break down and spreads acorns and beechnuts around — all essential to maintaining the forests where they live. 

The proposed route of Highway 413 in southern Ontario, as well as the Bradford Bypass, another highway project proposed by the Progressive Conservative government. Map: Jeannie Phan / The Narwhal

“Species here are part of an interdependent fabric of life,” Bell said. “Why would we assume that we can just cut holes in life’s tapestry and unravel the threads willy nilly, with no consequences?” 

Southern Ontario marks the boundary of many species’ northern ranges, and their survival here is particularly important as climate change worsens and many plants and animals shift north to adapt. But it’s also an ongoing challenge — heavy development in the region means habitats are often scattered, disconnected patches.

Staff from the federal Impact Assessment Agency directed Ontario in November 2021 to outline how the province would minimize harm from the construction of Highway 413 to the western chorus frog, red-headed woodpecker and rapids clubtail, according to correspondence released in response to the access to information request.

Farmland outside of Milton, Ont., near where Highway 413 will end. Heavy development in the Greater Toronto Area means the few natural wildlife habitats that remain are fragmented. Photo: Christopher Katsarov Luna / The Narwhal

More species at risk are likely near Highway 413, but exact numbers are unclear

The documents obtained by The Narwhal and The Star show the Ontario government believes that dozens more species at risk could be living along the planned route.

The documents also show it’s difficult to know the true extent of environmental damage to species along the highway route, as Ontario hasn’t finished key research. For example, the province has not yet done targeted surveys for species at risk in the area — it has fieldwork planned for summer 2022.

The report includes a longer list of 43 species at risk that the province believes may be living near the planned route of the highway. It includes the 11 confirmed species, and 31 others that historical and other records indicate might be there.

Some are plausible, but experts say some of the species on the longer list are extremely unlikely to actually be present. For example, it includes a songbird called a prothonotary warbler: as of 2005, fewer than 35 of them remained in Ontario, none in the area of Highway 413.

Fenn said the Ministry of Transportation’s species list was developed in consultation with other ministries, species at risk databases and species observed by ecologists on lands along the route. “This approach is a recognized national standard. The list has been and will be continually updated throughout the study process.” 

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault decided in 2021 that Ottawa would subject Highway 413 to an extra layer of environmental oversight. If the province’s plan to protect species at risk isn’t to its liking, the federal government could decide to take over the project altogether. Photo: Selena Phillips-Boyle / The Narwhal

Species at risk is a term for several categories of plants and animals in jeopardy. Endangered species are the most severe category, meaning they are in imminent risk of disappearing.

It’s common for development projects to affect one or a handful of species at risk, but Highway 413 would cover a large area and cuts through places with significant biodiversity, including Ontario’s Greenbelt.

The Ford government weakened Ontario’s species at risk rules in 2019. The new regime allows the Environment Ministry to issue permits for development that would harm endangered species habitat, as long as industry pays a fee for a fund that’s meant to help species recover elsewhere.

Last year, Ontario’s auditor general also found the Environment Ministry had never denied a permit to harm a species at risk, a problem that predates the current government.

Vaughan resident Tony Malfara, who is part of the Stop the 413 campaign, says the impact of the highway seems to get worse with each report. 

“The question is why?” he said. “Especially where there are alternatives. Why are we so determined to build over and disturb an environmental ecosystem that has been built and shaped over hundreds of thousands of years? To me, it seems illogical.”

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